Euroarea’s annual inflation remains stable at 0.2 pct in August

Euro area’s August annual inflation was confirmed at 0.2 percent. It is stable as compared with July, according to Eurostat. Prices rose for the third consecutive month. In August 2015, the currency bloc’s inflation rate was 0.1 percent. Headline inflation of the euro area has been lower than the European Central Bank’s target of ‘below, but close to 2 percent’ since the start of 2013.

Core inflation, excluding alcohol, energy, tobacco and food, eased slightly to 0.8 percent from July’s 0.9 percent. Euro area’s headline and core inflation were both consistent with consensus projections.

The largest upward impacts to the annual inflation of eurozone came from restaurants & cafes, which contributed 0.10 percentage points. Also, vegetables and fruits provided an upward impact to the headline inflation, contributing 0.07 percentage points. On the other hand, heating oil and gas and fuels for transport were the largest downward impacts on the headline inflation. Fuels for transport negatively contributed 0.35 percentage points, whereas oil and gas both subtracted 0.12 percentage points from the headline annual inflation.

Annual inflation in the European Union rose 0.3 percent in August from July’s 0.2 percent. Annual inflation in August 2015 was 0.0 percent. Twelve member states observed negative annual rates in August, with the lowest rates been recorded in Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovakia. The highest annual rates, on the other hand, were seen in Estonia, Sweden and Belgium.